Watching the Fish

gubbs

While up in Chester a few weeks ago we visited the Blue Planet aquarium:

Wow it's tough taking pictures of fish, I've a lot of respect for those of you who've previously posted pictures from aquariums. I used my 50mm 1.4 with the camera on iso 800. No noise reduction done, even though they need it pretty badly :nono anyway, here's a couple of shots:-

(I thought this was more of a street shot, hence this forum)








Comments, critiques and advice are always welcomed :thumb

gus

Nice colour mate. I always like blue & green in a shot.

Phil U.

Hey Gubbs - aquariums are pretty challenging. The low light is a tough barrier. You did well though. I especially like the first and the last.

Somewhere around here I posted some notes on how I've been able to get some pretty good results. If you're interested I'll look it up.

4labs

Love the first one Gubbs I bet it looks great in color as well.

ginger_55

Gubbs, that first one: it is a winner.

Of course, I am not sure it is the fish. The whole setup is great for a wonderful photo. And the blk and white makes it even better.

The others? I have never tried fish either. I think I would be afraid to now.
As a critique, which I am sure you could do, too. More contrast would help. But how? At the time of the photo, I am sure.

ginger

fishlips

that first one is a great, great shot. you can see the amazment in the kid's bodylanguage (is that one word). anyway, excellent image.

my hats off to you on the rest too. i tried some aquarium shots a couple of weeks ago while on vacation. not easy.

phil

USAIR

Gubbs
All great photos #1 is a really good one but last one is my favorite
Love the reflection

Thanks
Fred

photocat

I have no critique for you Gubbs. I mostly like what you do... I love the green and the blues in your photographs here. I had the same colors in an aquarium in Scotland. Though mine were not exactly sharp, I liked the colors and kept them anyway just because of the colors.
I love your blue and greenish yellow second shot too.
had to look for a while to figure out what the green blob was... I finally figured it out as a leaf touching the water and mirrorring...
Great job you did here...

pepper44

Nice shots! I have a thing for fish. I love them...dunno why. Anyway, my personal favorite is the first picture! It reminds me of a painting almost, or maybe an illustration from a childrens book.

--Amy

gubbs

Phil U. wrote:

Hey Gubbs - aquariums are pretty challenging. The low light is a tough barrier. You did well though. I especially like the first and the last.

Somewhere around here I posted some notes on how I've been able to get some pretty good results. If you're interested I'll look it up.

Yeah I'm interested, post the link thanks

gubbs

Thanks for all the comments everyone, I have to admit to being pleased with the first one , I spent a while cloning out his Dad who was sitting next to him

Thanks again thumb

Khaos

The comp on that first one is fantastic.

Aquarium shots are definately a challenge. It's not just the low light, but the water distorts and while our brains adjust for it, the camera doesn't.

Phil U.

gubbs wrote:

Yeah I'm interested, post the link thanks

Hmmm... My memory was thinking I had posted something a little more in depth but this is all I could find. The first link is a thread I started to display some of my shots. The "Explanation" is in a couple different reply posts down in the thread a little ways.
http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=8415

The secon link here has more examples
http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=6461

Another explanation post but with pretty much the same info here (it's on "that other site"):
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1009&message=10911553

I should add a note about making sure that the front lens element doesn't protrude beyond the end of the filter threads so it doesn't touch the tank glass... I can't speak for every lens ever made but I imagine it's ok in pretty much all cases.

Phil U.

gubbs wrote:

I spent a while cloning out his Dad who was sitting next to him

You shouldn't have said that. I hadn't noticed it before but I went back and looked - I see it now...